And I pray for another happy day for each of you!
The last couple of episodes we have been talking about Sacred Scripture. This is one of the central points of our Christian Faith. We have talked quite a bit about its structure and how the Bible came to be. The Bible is an amazing library of books. Since most of us are sheltered in place due to Covid 19 we can take a bit of our day and learn more about God and how He is speaking to us.
God is speaking to us
While He is speaking to us it really behooves us to figure out the best ways to interpret what He is saying. God speaks to us in the voice of mankind. We simply would not be able to understand any other way… and let’s face it we have troubles with this sometimes!
So whether you are hearing in English, French or another of the many languages around the world. God speaks to us through his love. As we translate this love into our hearts. We do have some criteria that we should use in interpreting the Scriptures in accordance with the Holy Spirit by whom it was written.
Criteria for Reading Scripture
The first Criteria really comes down to the idea that Scriptures should be taken as a whole. I am sure we have had people point out to us that a certain scripture passage says this or that. And this can lead to a number of issues. If one just “cherry picks” a specific verse and tries to use that to prove something they just might lead themselves down a very poor if not a dangerous road. It is very easy to move off of the Christian road and start to make up your own religion.
One should look at Scripture within its whole content. A line in let’s say Joshua should be looked at as how it relates to Genesis, Isaiah Luke, 2nd Peter, etc. etc. The Bible speaks to us as the Spirit. Remember it was God who wrote the Scriptures using men… But God was the author. God is the same as then now and will be in the future so his message is not going to change from Book to Book to Book.
Relationships in Scripture
A bit later on I will speak on the senses in which we should be reading scripture, but there are four senses which we can read the scripture and the way we read a particular verse may change. However, the relationship of the verse to the rest of the Bible won’t. A classic example of this is Jesus telling us to pluck out and eye or cut off an arm… God is not going to tell you to actually harm yourself… He loves us far too much for that. But we recognize that by reading this verse in light of the rest of the Bible The point is for us as individuals to stop doing things that take us away from God, perhaps inflate our own egos etc. The goal is for us to change our hearts. As it says in Leviticus 26:12
Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people;
Well that makes much more sense… Jesus saying I want you to change and not to die eternally. I want you to change become perfect like the Father….not stay as you are…
So if we read a particular verse that sounds odd or seems evil or bad… take a step back from that point and see how it fits into the entire Scriptural story.
Living Tradition
So along with reading within the whole picture, one should also read the Bible within the living tradition of the whole Church. Now over the past thousands of years there have been very intelligent and wise people who have come along. They have learned from their predecessors about what the Bible is, what it means and how one should read this or that.
Let’s face it all I am doing is passing along information given to me by people of the previous generation or two passing on what they have learned. And I learn from my own faith tradition as well as others. I love reading Barclays Daily Study Bible series as well as from people like N.T. Wright as well as Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins, not to mention our recent Popes and bishops. I don’t have to agree with it all or frankly understand it all to recognize it prods me along learning new things.
Sources of Dei Verbum
You have heard me quote quite a bit from a letter called Dei Verbum. This was promulgated (which is kinda like a book release) by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965… but a quick look at the foot notes can show that this letter references Augustine, Benedict the XV, the Apostolic Fathers, Irenaeus, Ambrose, St Thomas Aquinas and many others… This letter did not come out of thin air. This letter speaks specifically on and about the Divine Revelation. It took the last 2000 years of Christian thinking and crystalized it into a letter. This letter explaining Sacred Scripture, its source and its meaning to humanity.
We can learn so much from them
Nothing works in a vacuum. We are constantly looking back to where we have been to guide us to where we are going. That is why we look at the Bible within our living tradition of the Church. Who is going to know more about what Jesus said and did that the men and women that lived with him and heard his teachings? Those stories come down to us 2000 years later through the Church. We can look to items from that time period and verify that what is interpreted now is the same as then. No they didn’t have the technology, but they had the origins of the technology available. So they could easily relate to the world of today.
Now the last criteria advises us to “be attentive to the analogy of faith” Stick to the whole plan… the who salvation plan of God. All of the truths presented in the Bible come from God and are eternal. The Bible should be read within this light. But if you start thinking Hey this would be a great way to take over the world and dominate it… ummm you just might be looking at the wrong plan of salvation.
Don’t be troubled, but arise
So for some…. some of this will sound strange… but think for a few minutes… We know that the Bible is the Word of God so we should be looking at what it says in light of the entire word. One can’t just randomly pick a single verse and think one can understand everything by it. For example, in the Story of the raising of Lazarus there is the verse that says and Jesus wept. People use this for a myriad of goals. But when you take it into the entire passage and then attribute all we know about Christ and his reaction to death that we read about from the beginning of Genesis to the ending of Revelation… of course he wept… God didn’t want death to be part of the game. It is not part of the plan… but this showed us a big piece of the Plan of Salvation. Yes he wept.. and then He raised someone from the dead… That is how Ambrose thought about it as well as numerous other Fathers and Apostles. Everything lines up when you look at it through these lenses.
Introduction to the Senses
Now tomorrow we have a big challenge ahead of us.. the four senses of reading scripture. There is the literal sense and then there is the mystical sense… the mystical sense is broken into 3. I pray that I can help to understand this as it will do amazing things to help read and to see the many levels at which God writes. It may get a bit technical but I will try to bring this topic to the Unity of the Old and New testaments… and then we can start to take a look at ourselves and our response to God.
It has been a fantastic week… I know this ran a bit long today… I will try to keep tomorrow’s shorter. This really is so important to allow all of us to Read the Bible together and understand perhaps where others get ideas from which we never thought of and maybe should have J
So I am praying for all of you
Be Good Play Nice Think God!
For additional Information:
Please see The Catechism of the Catholic Church ¶109 through 115